This was my second MSC cruise and my seventh overall cruise. However this was the 1st time that we had booked a 14-day cruise! Yes, FOURTEEN DAYS! My mom, my husband, my 7-year-old son, my 3-year-old son, and I sailed together on the MSC Fantasia, from March 18, 2018 to April 1, 2018, roundtrip from Guadeloupe to Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, the Dominican Republic, St. Kitts & Nevis, Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, and Grenada, with multiple stops in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Kitts & Nevis. We had two Fantastica balcony staterooms on Deck 10, right next to each other: 10208 and 10210. We loved our clean and spacious staterooms! We booked this cruise for the amazing itinerary! I was a bit disappointed when a portion of the itinerary changed – the initial itinerary included Tortola, British Virgin Islands; Dominica; and St. Maarten/St. Martin. After the damage caused by the 2017 hurricane season, those three ports were removed from the itinerary, and, instead, an extra stop in St. Kitts was added, as well as a stop in La Romana, Dominican Republic. We made the best of it! Truly, the itinerary was still FABULOUS! We had a wonderful time! The crew and staff that we dealt with the most, which were our room steward, wait staff and other dining room staff, and the photo team were consistently pleasant and really made this voyage GREAT!

January 19, 2018. Today marks 5 years since My Cruising Family’s first family cruise.

Sidebar… It’s funny because my first cruise – not a family cruise – was in 2005, prior to becoming a mother and prior to meeting my husband, yet it was on Disney Cruise Line, which is probably the first cruise line that comes to mind when you hear the words “family cruise.” I’ve got to let you know that Disney is loads of fun for adults without children, as I experienced it first-hand in 2005. Nevertheless, I now say that that Disney Magic cruise, being my first cruise, was a sign that I’d be loving family cruising years later, and that I’d be a resource for all things related to family cruising.

So, back to January 19, 2013. My husband, our then 2-year-old son, and I sailed on the Carnival Dream’s 7-day Western Caribbean itinerary. Little did we know then what we know now, and what we put into practice as we now usually sail as a family of four or five.